A Riverside, California, school district drew criticism after its official website promoted an essay with a decidedly racialist stance. Wh...
A Riverside, California, school district drew criticism after its official website promoted an essay with a decidedly racialist stance.
What are the details?
According to the Federalist, the essay — titled "Decentering Whiteness" — is written by authors Jeff Hitchcock and Charley Flint.
In the essay, the authors state that "attacking whiteness is not enough" when it comes to dismantling white supremacy and noted that it takes all walks of life to cut down whiteness.
The report added that the district referenced the essay at least three times throughout the website, under subsections including "Professional Learning," "Community Engagement," and "Culture and Climate."
All references at the time were reportedly found under the webpage's Equity, Access, and Community Engagement resources page.
All instances pointing to the essay, however, have been scrubbed from the site at the time of this reporting.
The removed document, the Federalist reported, condemned whiteness and explained tactics for whiteness itself to be "made more marginal.
“Decentering whiteness, as we envision it, is a collective process that can take place in organizations, sectors of society, personal lives, etc., over periods of days, months, years and generations," a portion of the document read. The document also encourages people to assume that "whiteness, and race, always structures our experience."
"[S]imply attacking whiteness is not enough to accomplish this goal [of deconstructing whiteness]," the document continued. "Assaults on whiteness, depending on their nature, may have the effect of confirming and solidifying the central position of whiteness in American society."
The Federalist added, "Perhaps most sinister, 'Decentering Whiteness' clearly sought to encourage racial division and even racial conflict, calling on a multiracial coalition to 'displace' whiteness. It read 'It will take a multiracial effort to displace whiteness, one that includes people from all racial/cultural groups.'"
What else?
Communications director Diana Meza told the outlet that the district was in the process of "updating the Equity, Access & Community Engagement Google site and landing page."
"The page should be back up soon," Meza added when reached for comment about the inexplicable disappearance of "Decentering Whiteness" references.
You can read the document in its entirety here.
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